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Introducing Trendy New Services and Products to Your Clients
Beauty
Business Buzz
Shannon Wells
Are you ready to take the plunge and introduce
the season’s hottest new products and
services in your salon or spa?
Whether it’s offering the latest celebrity
extensions or unveiling that great new spray
tan machine, you want to make sure you get
the most bang for your buck when introducing
a new service to your clients. So rather
than stocking your shelves or simply adding an
item to your menu and waiting for the money
to magically roll in, there are some strategic
moves you can make to ensure success.
Research and Consider. With every new
| AUGUST 008 | CALIFORNIA STYLIST & SALON
service or product you add, there are some
very important things to consider.
1. Identify the need among your clients: Is the
product or service something your clients are
interested in? How will it improve their lives?
How many times per month or year will they
use or buy the product—or could it just be a
one hit wonder?
2. Determine if the product will improve your
bottom line. How many will you need to sell
to be profitable? What purchase price do
you need to be profitable? How much initial
inventory will you need in order to maintain
flow? How long can you continue to offer this
product? Is it a fad?
3. How does this product or service compare to your
competitors? Does everyone carry this exact same
product? What exclusivity can you claim by of-
fering this product? Are there alternative lines or
brands of this product that you can offer?
Education and Trial. Making sure your
team is 100 percent on board with your new
offering is key in its success. Take the time
to thoroughly educate your team on the
benefits and reasons behind adding it to your
repertoire. Better yet, if time allows, have a
brainstorming session and find out what your
team thinks would make good additions to
your menu. If they help create it, they will help
make sure it’s successful.
Each manufacturer and distributor wants
to make sure you are excited about what they
have to offer. Take advantage of this; enlist
them to host training for your team so they are
completely comfortable with the new product
or service. Fear of the unknown is what causes
so many new menu additions to fail. If your
staff is completely comfortable with the what,
when and why of the product, they will feel
comfortable recommending it.
It is also important to do testing of the new
product with your staff and your best clientele.
Select a test group that can give you honest
feedback on its effects. The clients may love the
new item and you will have created an immediate
client for life. Or you might be surprised to
find that a product that everyone is using misses
the mark among your clientele and staff.
Fill the Need. The last aspect of success-
fully introducing a new product or service
to your clients is making sure your team is
introducing the new item in the most effective
way. Have them point out that it is a solution
that truly fills a need for your clients. The best
way to ensure this is to be certain your team
is educated about what the product or service
will accomplish, as was mentioned, and then
that the team is comfortable finding out if their
clients have the need this product will fill.
This step is often overlooked, and it will
have a big impact on the success of a new
product or service. We assume the person in
our chair will tell us exactly what they need.
We forget that, when clients don’t know what
is available, they are limited to what they think
they can ask for. Your team’s job is to ask questions,
get the clients talking, use your menu to
introduce the services they need, and let your
clients know the full scope of services you
provide for them and how they will benefit
from them.
Introducing a new product or service can
be fun and exhilarating. After performing a few
of the due diligence steps listed above, you can
up the odds of successfully launching exciting
new items in your business.
Shannon Wells is the Marketing Manager of Your Beauty Network, a beauty
industry ongoing business support service. For more information, visit www.
ybn.com, call 866-364-4926 or email shannon@ybn.com.